But on her way through the main room of the cabin—which held the desk and a comfortable looking couch, in front of a rectangular projection-screen which was playing the image of a green and blue fire—something caught her eye. It was a small square cube that looked vaguely familiar, for some of the girls had them back at the academy.
A memory cube! I wonder what’s on it?
Lan’ara picked the small cube up from its place on the neatly arranged desk and looked at it intently. For all that the desk was so clean, the spot where it had been sitting was faintly outlined in dust, as though it hadn’t been disturbed for a long time. The little object was surprisingly heavy and she turned it over in her hands curiously.
Suddenly, the cube began to hum and a bright golden image was projected from one of its facets.
Lan’ara gasped and almost dropped the thing—she hadn’t expected it to turn on by itself! She juggled it madly for a moment, then managed to get a grip on it and look at the image it was projecting.
It was a girl about her own age, Lan’ara thought, with long, golden hair and big green eyes. She was laughing at whoever was taking the picture and had full curves, like Lan’ara’s. Or wait…Lan’ara frowned. Did she have full curves?
Turning the cube from side to side, to get a look at the holo projection from all angles, she realized that while the girl was indeed full-figured, she was also pregnant. Who could she be? An old lover of Need’s? He seemed too grim a man to ever attract such a laughing, happy girl as the one in the projection, but there was no doubt he was handsome. Maybe she had been willing to put up with his ill-humor because of his masculine beauty.
Or maybe he hadn’t always been as grim and unsmiling as Lan’ara saw him now. Now that was something to think about.
At last the projection died and she was able to place the cube back where she had found it. She made certain to place it in the exact spot she’d taken it from. The dusty edges around the spot on the desk helped to guide her. She wondered if maybe Need hadn’t looked at the holo projection in a long time because he had lost interest in the girl who was pictured.
Or maybe it simply hurts too much for him to remember her, whispered a little voice in Lan’ara’s head.
Well, either way, she still needed to find a way to check her appearance. With a last look at the cube, she headed for the fresher. Sure enough, when she went back into the small room with the tub and the wash flowers, there was indeed a silvery reflective surface on one wall.
Lan’ara spent some time examining herself from all angles, wanting to make certain she looked her best. After days spent mewed up in the hold of, first the pirate ship and then the slave vessel, it was a relief to be clean again. It was the first time she could remember looking and feeling normal since the night before the pirates attacked—the night they had all been given their vitamin and immunity shots by the Twyleth Tigg Academy nurse.
“There you go, my dear,” the nurse had said when Lan’ara winced at the sharp jab of multiple needles going into her arms. “I know it stings, but it’s for your own good, so it is. It will make your life on Genu Six much easier, I promise.”
“Because I’ll have immunity to the local diseases, right?” Lan’ara had asked her.
“Mmm-hmm.” The nurse had nodded her graying head as she applied seal-skin to the tiny punctures the needles had made in Lan’ara’s upper arm. “As well as other things. The injections we give you now will make you a better bride—one most pleasing to her husband or master-to-be. Consider yourself lucky, my dear—this is a proprietary compound guaranteed to make you irresistible to the male who buys you.”
Lan’ara hadn’t had any idea what the kindly old nurse was talking about or how antibiotic shots could make her irresistible, but she wished they would work here, aboard The Dark Heart and not just on Genu Six. It would be good if they could make her new owner like her, at least a little bit—her life would certainly be easier if he did. Of course, the school officials hadn’t had any idea that she was going to be taken by pirates and sold by slavers, but a little advantage would be nice to have.
She glanced at herself anxiously. Was she really looking her best? Even if the Twyleth Tigg proprietary chemical compound was no good to her here, she needed to be certain she was pleasing to her new owner—even if he was only going to be keeping her for a short time before selling her to Senator Pouncenblast.